60 Fun Facts About Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is located in which South American country?

It lies in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes, about 80 km northwest of Cusco.

Which civilisation built Machu Picchu?

It is often called the 'Lost City of the Incas' and is one of the most iconic symbols of their civilisation.

Roughly how high above sea level does Machu Picchu sit?

That is more than 1,000 metres lower than Cusco, so the site enjoyed a milder climate than the Inca capital.

Machu Picchu is about 80 km northwest of which former Inca capital?

Cusco sits at around 3,400 metres; the tourist train runs from there or Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes below the ruins.

Which river loops around Machu Picchu on three sides, far below the ridge?

Cliffs drop 450 metres from the site to the river, and morning mists rise from it.

What does the name Machu Picchu mean in Quechua?

Machu means 'old' and pikchu 'peak'; a 2021 study argues the Incas themselves probably called the site Huayna Picchu, 'young peak', after the smaller mountain beside it.

Machu Picchu is believed to have been built as an estate for which Inca emperor?

He was the ninth Sapa Inca, who turned the chiefdom of Cusco into an empire; no contemporary written records confirm the attribution.

What is Machu Picchu's palace complex thought to have functioned as?

Although a royal estate, it would not have passed down the line of succession, and was used for about 80 years.

A 2021 Yale-led radiocarbon study places the occupation of Machu Picchu between roughly which years?

That is a little earlier than the traditional date of 1450, ten years after Pachacuti's takeover.

Roughly how many people are estimated to have lived at Machu Picchu while it was in use?

Most were yanaconas, permanent support staff; in winter numbers fell to a few hundred servants and religious specialists.

What do studies of skeletal remains suggest about the people who lived at Machu Picchu?

Genome-wide analyses found Andean, coastal, Ecuadorian and Amazonian ancestries living, reproducing and being buried together.

Which animals account for most of the animal bones found at Machu Picchu?

They naturally live around 4,000 metres, so were probably brought in from the puna for meat and pelts; guinea pigs and six dogs were also found.

What is the Quechua-derived term for the artificial farming terraces at Machu Picchu?

The terraces cover only about 4.9 hectares, not enough to feed 750 people, so food was imported from the valleys.

Why did Inca engineers design Machu Picchu's terraces primarily for drainage rather than irrigation?

Kenneth Wright's soil analyses in the 1990s showed layers of large stones, gravel, sand and imported topsoil.

Which Machu Picchu structure is interpreted as a site of animal sacrifice?

There is little direct evidence for human sacrifice at Machu Picchu; camelid offerings were common.

Approximately how many caves and rock shelters around Machu Picchu were used as burial chambers?

They held the remains of about 174 individuals, mostly yanaconas of diverse origins rather than Inca elite.

Which Peruvian explorer reached Machu Picchu in 1902 and left his name in charcoal on a temple wall?

Bingham noted in his field journal that Lizárraga was the discoverer, but gradually wrote him out of the story by 1952.

Which American historian brought Machu Picchu to international attention in 1911?

A Yale lecturer, not a trained archaeologist, he was actually searching for the lost Neo-Inca capital of Vilcabamba.

Who led Bingham up to the ruins on 24 July 1911?

At the top an 11-year-old boy, Pablito Richarte, whose family farmed the old terraces, guided him along the ridge to the main ruins.

What was Bingham's 1911 expedition primarily searching for?

He was looking for Vitcos and Vilcabamba, where Manco Inca had held out after the Spanish conquest; he later misidentified Machu Picchu as that lost city.

Bingham compared his 'discovery' of Machu Picchu to whose 'discovery' of America?

In a 1922 letter he argued that, like Columbus, he was the one who made the place known to the geographical and historical societies.

Which two institutions sponsored Bingham's 1912 return expedition to clear and excavate the site?

Clearing ran from July to November 1912, with local labour partly organised by Lizárraga's younger brother Ángel.

Ceremonial Inca knives recovered by Bingham's expedition are the earliest known artefacts of what alloy?

Rumours that the team smuggled artefacts out via Bolivia were false; the removals were open and legal under Peru's 1852 civil code.

In which year did Yale University deliver the final batch of Machu Picchu artefacts back to Peru?

They had been taken in 1912–15 supposedly for 18 months; they are now shown at the Casa Concha museum in Cusco.

The Yale lecturer who publicised Machu Picchu held what political office for a single day in 1925?

It was the shortest gubernatorial term in history; he had also been elected to the US Senate and chose that seat instead.

Where was the Yale lecturer who publicised Machu Picchu in 1911 born?

His father and grandfather were Protestant missionaries to the Kingdom of Hawaii.

The Intihuatana stone's name, probably applied by Bingham, means what in Quechua?

Scholars reject the popular idea that it was a sundial gnomon; at midday on 11 November and 30 January it casts almost no shadow.

The Temple of the Sun at Machu Picchu is also known by what Spanish name, referring to its shape?

It is a semicircular tower built among granite boulders; its openings create characteristic sunlight patterns and views of the Pleiades.

What is the opening in the Torreón that leads to a platform overlooking Huayna Picchu?

The rock inside is carved with steps and a Z-shaped edge usually interpreted as an altar.

The cave Inti Mach'ay's window admits sunlight only for a few days around which event?

During the Qhapaq Raymi festival noble boys were initiated into manhood by an ear-piercing ritual as they watched the sunrise from inside.

What is the characteristic shape of Inca doors and windows at Machu Picchu?

Narrowing from bottom to top, together with rounded corners and inward-leaning walls, helped the buildings survive earthquakes.

What holds the precisely cut stones of Machu Picchu's main buildings together?

Seismic activity from two fault lines made mortar almost useless, so the Inca shaped granite blocks to fit exactly.

Research in 2019 suggested Machu Picchu was deliberately built on earthquake faults. Why?

Geologist Rualdo Menegat said the site shows the Inca civilisation was 'an empire of fractured rocks'.

What is the dominant bedrock beneath Machu Picchu?

There are smaller occurrences of granodiorite and local dikes of peridotite and serpentine.

Roughly how many buildings stand at Machu Picchu?

They are arranged on wide parallel terraces around an east–west central square, in long narrow compounds called kanchas.

The urban sector of Machu Picchu is divided into an upper and a lower town known by which Quechua terms?

The Hanan holds the Sacred Plaza and Intihuatana; the Hurin has the kanchas, the Acllahuasi and the Temple of the Condor.

What is the name of the main gateway through which the Inca Trail arrives at Machu Picchu?

At least ten Inca roads link the city with nearby monuments, including one across the Inca Bridge to Llaqtapata.

What is the highest point on the Classic Inca Trail, at about 4,200 metres, known as in English?

Warmi Wañusqa is said to resemble a supine woman; trekkers usually take four or five days to complete the trail.

How many people in total are allowed on the Inca Trail each day, including guides and porters?

Only 200 of them may be trekkers, so the high season books out very quickly.

How many hikers per day are permitted to climb Huayna Picchu, the steep peak behind the ruins?

The permits are split between two entrance times; the summit is about 260 metres higher than Machu Picchu itself.

Roughly how much higher than the Machu Picchu citadel is the summit of Huayna Picchu?

The peak stands 2,693 metres above sea level; the Temple of the Moon and the Great Cavern lie on its flanks.

What does the name of Aguas Calientes, the town below the ruins, mean?

Its station, Puente Ruinas, receives the tourist train from Cusco every morning; a bus then climbs 8.6 km to the entrance.

In which year did UNESCO designate Machu Picchu a World Heritage Site?

Peru had already declared a 325.92 square-kilometre Historic Sanctuary around it in 1981.

Machu Picchu was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in which year?

The winners of the global online and telephone poll were announced on 7 July 2007 in Lisbon; UNESCO distanced itself from the campaign.

In 2024 the official daily visitor limit for Machu Picchu was raised to what number?

Up to 5,600 are allowed in peak season; the cap had been 2,500 from 2011.

What happened at Machu Picchu in October 2020, during its eight-month pandemic closure?

It reopened properly in November 2020 with admissions limited to 675 visitors a day.

Which 1954 Charlton Heston film was the first major Hollywood production shot on location at Machu Picchu?

Werner Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God later opened with scenes on the stairway of Huayna Picchu.

Machu Picchu features prominently in which 2004 biopic based on Che Guevara's travel memoir?

The site also appears in The Simpsons episode 'Lost Verizon' and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

Machu Picchu is officially twinned with which English village, famous for the Brontë sisters?

Its other twin towns include Petra in Jordan and Fukushima and Ōtama in Japan.

The Machu Picchu sanctuary is home to more than 420 species of what?

They include the cock-of-the-rock and the Andean condor; mammals include the spectacled bear and puma.

Why do most archaeologists think Machu Picchu was abandoned around 1530, before any Spaniard reached it?

It is possible that most inhabitants died from smallpox brought by travellers before the conquistadors arrived in the area.

Which 2023 blockbuster shot sequences at Machu Picchu and other Cusco sites?

Fifty years earlier Werner Herzog had opened Aguirre, the Wrath of God on the stone stairway of Huayna Picchu.

In the 1980s a rock was moved from the central plaza to make room for what?

The practice was later stopped as preservationists pushed back against commercial pressure on the site.

In 2024, roughly how many visitors did Machu Picchu receive?

That made it Peru's most visited international tourist destination and a constant target for commercial pressure.

Guinea pigs found in special tomb caves at the site point to their use in what?

Across the Inca Empire the animals doubled as sacrifices and as meat.

Which 1972 Werner Herzog film opens with scenes shot around Machu Picchu?

Klaus Kinski's conquistadors descend the stone stairway of Huayna Picchu in the famous opening shot.

How long is the bus ride from Aguas Calientes up to the Machu Picchu entrance?

Visitors arrive in the town by PeruRail or Inca Rail trains from Cusco or Ollantaytambo, then ride or walk up.

Researchers from which US state's flagship school laser-scanned the whole site in 2005 and 2009?

The scans also covered the ruins on the summit of the adjacent Huayna Picchu mountain.

Which explorer's 1964 work identified Espíritu Pampa as Vilcabamba Viejo, the Incas' last refuge?

Bingham had reached the same jungle-buried ruins in 1911 and named them 'Trombone Pampa' without grasping their importance.

Which German engineer may have rediscovered and exploited the site in the late 19th century?

Maps referenced the site as early as 1874, decades before Bingham's 1911 visit.